Effectiveness of supportive group psychotherapy on the psychological traumatic in the nurses who experienced a violence event caused by patients

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of the supportive group therapy on the psychological traumatic in the nurses who experienced a violence event. Methods 58 nurses were enrolled in this study and randomly arranged to therapy group and control group.Ninety minutes group psychotherapy was used in the therapy group once weekly and last 6 weeks, and no any intervention method was used in the control group. For both groups, evaluations were conducted at three time points that was baseline, immediately after the completion of the intervention and 3 months after the completion of psychotherapy.Evaluations were conducted using the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and Profile of Mood States (POMS). Results The reduction of the total scores of ISE-R and flashback factor, hyper-arousal factor, avoidance behavior factor in the therapy group were higher than those in control group(-5.00(3.89)vs -1.48(3.05), P<0.01; -1.53(1.46)vs -0.60(1.90), P<0.05; -1.97(2.71)vs -0.18(1.76), P<0.01; -1.50(2.60)vs-0.70(2.08), P<0.01, respectively). Both the reduction of total scores of PMOS and the tension-anxiety factor and depression-dejection factor scores on the POMS differed significantly between the two groups(-2.80(19.40)vs-0.41(14.05), P<0.01; -1.85(3.64)vs 0.37(3.40), P<0.01 ; -1.10(6.52)vs 0.13(4.30), P<0.01, respectively). All these effects maintained 3 months after the psychotherapy completion. Conclusion The group psychotherapy can alleviate the psychological traumatic of nurses experienced violence events, and it can be used to protect the mental health of these nurses. Key words: Psychiatric nurse; Violence event; Supportive group psychotherapy